tortured soul
by Akolbi
Summary: this picks up after the final battle with the giants. a darker and edgier. it will be justified, but i want to bring reality to the reactions of the characters.
1. Chapter 1

The giants were winning.

Percy surveyed the battlefield that was Mt. Olympus, seeing only token resistance. Artemis was dutifully firing arrows into whatever giant she could, Athena and Annabeth were fighting as a unit, and the other Olympians and demigods were laying on the ground, dead, or severely wounded.

Percy saw Athena take a devastating blow to the head, the giant caught Annabeth on the backswing, sending her to the ground. Percy noticed shallow breathing coming from her, the signal that she was still alive. Percy sprinted to the daughter of Athena's defense, the earth rumbling, storms brewing, and fury in Percy's eyes.

Out of the corner of his eye Percy saw the goddess of the hunt take a heavy blow that forced her to the ground, but he had more important things to worry about. Percy glared at the giant who had hurt Annabeth, an evil grin on his face. Percy strolled toward the giant, he didn't even register which one, as he made the water in the giant's ichor boil. The giant exploded in a gold shower, as the water re-condensed around the golden cloud.

The other giants stood stunned. They had thought they could only be killed by gods and demigods working together, yet somehow this demigod had killed one of them alone, without so much as lifting a finger. Percy still was entombed within his fury and hatred, enjoying the suffering of the giants. He walked toward the nearly awoken Gaia, her previously white eyes now only slightly milky, over the pure verdant orbs. Percy stared into the eyes of the target of his wrath.

Percy plunged the point of his sword deep into the embodiment of the earth, twisting it for good measure. Percy's brust of power left him with his rightous fury. He turned back to the battle to see that only three giants remained. They all rushed him, taking him captive.

**Hey this is my sad attempt at getting back into writing. I'm sorry to anybody who wants me to update my current stories, I haven't been able to look at them. I'm insecure about work that I have done in the past. If enough people want me to, which it seems they do, I can try giving them another shot.**

**Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoy the story, and please give me any suggestions you have.**


	2. Chapter 2

"The gods give immortality as a blessing," Percy heard a voice say as he awoke, " We give it as a curse."

Percy became lucid enough to realize that he was chained, naked and spread eagle in the middle of a giant chamber. He saw a giant, fiddling with tools that seemed too small for him to use.

It was at this point that Percy realized that the chains put him approximately at eye level to the giant. It smiled at crook-toothed grin at Percy, malice evident in its eyes, "You may have defeated mother, but we can get revenge for her."

At this the giant plunged a knife into Percy's right arm, it would have been comical, seeing a giant handling a blade as small as that, had it not just been inserted to the hilt in Percy's arm. As the wound burned Percy realized something. Knife wounds didn't _burn_ and the fire didn't run rampant through his body. The only answer that made any sense sprang to his mind, _poison_.

The giant closed the wound with water, careful to only put it on Percy in single small drops. This closed the wound, but left the venom of the knife to course through his veins.

Another giant came to him some time later, Percy didn't know how much time had passed, it could have been weeks; it could have been mere hours. All Percy had been aware of was a burning, a fire within him that was not of him. A giant gave him a vial. When drank, the fire was quenched, but Percy felt weak, he was about to drift into the dark sanctuary of sleep…

When he felt a line of pain across his left arm, where a deep cut caused what was now golden ichor to flow in a river down his body, dripping onto the floor, eventually the veil of sleep shut out the torture.

Percy had been acutely aware of his pain, nothing more seemed real. He knew that he had been tortured for at least a year, but he had no concept of time beyond that, he could have been there for thousands of years and not have known the difference. His immortality had made such a horror possible. The giants were right; it was a curse to be unable to die. Percy longed for a visit from Thanatos more than anything. He would have greeted him as a savior, and welcomed even the fields of punishment, if it would only get him out of the hell he was in.

Percy had been poisoned repeatedly. He had been beaten. He had be stabbed, cut, and maimed. Scars had been left on his immortal body that nothing could remove. Like the maimed leg of Hephaestus, he would be forever marked. Finally after all this pain and suffering, Percy saw a flash of… darkness?

It seemed like the kind of thing that might be a herald of the personification of death, but, alas, it was not.

Three old women stood before Percy. They spoke in a chorus, "Perseus Jackson."

"Yes," Percy mustered as he struggled to discern if this was reality or merely a dream, wishing to get out of this hell.

Often his dreams kept him sane, it was only through them that he could remember who he was, what he had been before his capture, and a piece, not a large one, but a piece nonetheless, of the old Percy might survive.

One of the sisters spoke, "We have something that must be accomplished,"

Another picked up, "and, as usual, it falls to you."

The third sister spoke now, "We need you to cleanse the world; there is a reason that Gaea could awake,"

"and you need to fix it."

"this is too large of a goal,"

"to simply weave into your life"

"you must accept a request,"

They spoke again, as one, "from the sisters of fate."

Percy considered for a moment, unsure what the mission was, but it didn't matter. Whatever the fates wanted, it was important, and there was an even bigger draw.

It would save him from hell.

Percy's gaze was more focused on some spot behind the sisters of fate, rather than on them, a defeated look in his eye, but something he hadn't felt in a long time was there. Hope.

"What must I do?"

**Well that's about it. It took me a while to decide to write this chapter, I always do them in one sitting, and I couldn't figure out how to start this one. I knew what I wanted to convey, but the muses refused to grant me inspiration.**

**Looking back at this chapter, I really like it. I also want to say that I have an idea for where this story is going, but I am always open to suggestions. **

**Most importantly, I would like to say to people who don't like this story, or my writing in general, please tell me, I welcome criticism, I am always in search of perfection, and the closer I can get to the unobtainable, the better off I am.**

**Thank you to all who have taken their time to read my writing, I find no greater honor than looking at something I wrote, and having people read, and like it. Other than, perhaps, finding others who liked my ideas so much that they have put their own spin on them, which is actually what this story is.**


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